The Dictatorship
by LokiRavenscraft
Summary: Things set in motion thousands of years before the events of FFVII begin to take root. Will those who emerge from the resulting chaos be able to handle it?
1. Resiliance

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or settings, names or towns. I only own the idea of this particular story's plot. So don't sue me.

* * *

I was deep in thought.

It would seem existentialism was the word of the week, and it would seem my partner was feeling it too. My eyes flicked around the shadows of the slums cautiously. This was a bad place to be, and with a kid, no less. I glanced at the tiny form monkeying on my partner's back and thought about how we had ended up here.

My stoic partner and I had gotten a call from our boss two hours ago, saying that a very powerful monster had been spotted in a bad part of town, and needed us to go check it out. It went without saying that we were to kill it as well.

"Aibou."I jumped as my partner spoke unexpectedly. I gave the stoic man my full attention. He motioned with his hand, and I peered through the gloom, finally making out what he had seen.

I nodded, ghosting over to the trail of slime left by the creature. As I knelt to examine it, I pulled a small glass bottle from my pocket and gingerly scooped some of the gunk into it. I capped the vial and rubbed my fingers under my nose, brow furrowing in concentration as I tried to place the scent. And failed miserably.

"Uk. Disgusting."  
My partner moved a bit farther off, not quite as quietly as I had, however. He examined the tunnel that the trail started at.  
"Looks like it goes all the way down." He commented, turning his head slightly to look back at me.  
I stood, irritated.

"What a pain." I groused. "Hojo needs to keep his pets locked up so this doesn't happen. It was supposed to be my day off."  
My serious partner looked amused for a brief moment, then thought better of smiling at my obvious annoyance.

"I don't think he let it loose on purpose, you know." He said, a faint hint of laughter evident in his voice. I glared at him and stalked off down the tunnel. Stupid Hojo. Stupid experiments. Of course this was all done with the intention of making me miserable. It was the only possible explanation I could come up with during my mindless ranting to myself. My partner could only grin at my mutters and empty threats after my back was turned.

"I'm too old to be doing this." I muttered. He frowned.  
"You're younger than I am." He pointed out as he caught up to me.  
I smirked.

"Well, you have a point there. Want to wait in the car, old man?" I suggested, one pale red eyebrow quirking upward as I ducked. His fist whiffed through the air just where my head had been. Spend a while with someone, and they can be predictable.  
"Just kidding, just kidding!" I laughed as I danced away. He glared and stormed up to me, about to give me a stern talking-to. Both of us froze, however, when we heard a child-like scream from further down the tunnel.

Then we were running, so fast that we were practically flying.  
"The hell was that!" I yelled.  
"You're asking me?"

As we careened around a corner, we spied a small girl huddled on the ground. She was tiny, with hints of foreign parentage. In front of her, however, and a more immediate problem, was a large snarling mass of fangs, claws, and fur. It was also impossible to discern what exactly the beastie was.

"Hey, we found the animal."  
"Who _cares_ about that right now!"

And with that, I leaped forward. So did the creature, but I hit first. A sound like thunder rolled through the alley, and the creature went flying, landing amid some heavy duty trash cans. The small girl opened her eyes at the sound, and was greeted with the sight of my fist just in front of her face, sparking with electricity. The fist pulled back to reveal long crimson hair and extremely bright green eyes. The eyes that swung to her, and softened as they did so.

In that split second, my partner began running up behind me. I glanced to the side quickly, and noticed the monster gathering itself for a jump. I whirled and pushed the small girl between myself and the wall, giving her as much cover as possible.

"Close your eyes." I hissed into her ear, and she complied.

A gunshot rang out, and the beast flew back again, for good this time. I looked up to see my partner re-holstering his gun. Of course I knew he wouldn't hit me. He was a crack shot. I was more worried about the girl. After some careful maneuvering, I set the small child down while my partner went to check on the state of the monster. The girl regarded him cautiously for a moment. He wore dark sunglasses and was in general a rather imposing person. But as he passed, he gave her a small smile, which made her feel more at ease.

I suppose 'more at ease' also meant 'engage panic mode' because she started crying.

"It's ok, you're safe now." I soothed. I sat back on my heels, effectively blocking the child's vision of the dead monster with the hole blown in its head. The little girl sniffled softly, and gazed up at me with an expression halfway between relief and fear.

"Did my daddy send you to find me?" she asked, uncertainly. I'm pretty sure my face displayed no outward surprise, but the fingers of my right hand twitched. My green eyes roved over the small girl, and our surroundings.

Judging from the age and size of the girl, she couldn't be more than six. And how am I supposed to answer a question like that?

No, we weren't sent by your dad, so he must not care about you?  
Yes, we were, and who was your dad again?  
Damnit. No time to comfort. Ah well, honesty really is the best policy.  
Sometimes.  
Occasionally.  
Maybe.

" 'Fraid not, sweetie. We were hunting that monster down. Glad we found you in time though." I said matter-of-factly.

The matter-of-fact manner broke down pretty quickly.

"Daddy was supposed to come pick me up from school but he never showed up! I was so worried something might have happened to him, so I tried to go home myself! But I got lost!" the small girl started crying again.

Silence behind me alerted me to my partner's presence. I looked up at him in mounting desperation, and motioned at the crying child. The quiet man dropped to his knees in front of the child and patted her head.  
"What's your name?" he said softly. The tiny girl looked up at him rather trustingly.  
"I'm Marlene." she sniffled softly.  
"Well, tell you what, Marlene. Me and my partner here are gonna get you home, alright?" he said gently.  
I turned around to examine the corpse of the monster.  
Ugh.  
That was a gruesome sight.  
It's a good thing I had thought to not let her see it, but I was very glad he had taken over for me in this area. He was always much better with small children than I had been.

"I...I can't walk. I think I hurt my ankle running." said Marlene, almost apologetically. He shrugged, and turned around.  
"Piggyback." he said simply, and she giggled a little. Even I smiled at that.  
"So, where can we find your dad?" he asked. Marlene had to think about that for a minute, as he turned her around to walk the way the we had come, without exposing her to the gruesome scene below.

I pulled out my PHS and snapped a picture of the monster. My boss would need confirmation, and considering his mood, wanted it right away. I sent him a text message along with the picture.  
**'Got it, will be back soon. Need to drop off some baggage.'**

"Oh, um, what time is it?"  
"Around 4"  
"He's at 7th Heaven then."

I almost dropped my phone, but thankfully I retained a tight grip on it. It was hard to get an unknown creature's bodily fluids out of a cell phone. I knew. I had had to go through the lengthy process once before, and I was damned if I would do it again. Even so...

"He's at a bar huh? He does this every day?" I asked.  
"Yes. He says that his friends like to hang out there too."

My partner and I glanced at each other. We knew where the bar was. It's wasn't too far away actually.  
But Heaven help the man who didn't pick up his daughter after school and left her to wander the dangerous slums herself, because by the time I was through with him, no one would be able to.

As I began to respond to that, however, my phone went off. I frowned at the tiny screen.  
**'That's not the right monster.'**

I stared at my phone for a brief second, then looked over at my partner. There was no way we'd be able to fight a monster and keep the girl safe at the same time.  
Well.  
I could.  
But I didn't want to take that chance.

"Aibou." I said softly. He grunted.  
"Well, we better get going then. You ready?" asked my partner.  
"I'll meet you at the car." I said casually, spinning on my heel and trotting past them.

Damn. I hated to do this, take off after the creature without warning him, but I didn't want to frighten the girl. There was no alternative. As usual though, my partner surprised me.

"Be careful."  
I looked back at him, and gave him a rakehell grin.  
"Never am."

Moving quickly, I found the tunnel system that we had barreled out of in our haste to find the girl.  
Examining the ground, I discovered that whatever had attacked the girl was not the monster we had been after. The stuff on the floor that we had looked at earlier was heading in a different direction, though it sort of petered out the farther into the slums it got.

I paused at an intersection and checked the GPS locator built into my phone. Sure enough, my partner was making for the car in record time. Hopefully I could finish this soon.

As I glanced up from my phone, a breeze brushed by me from the left side of the room.  
Though I would never have admitted it, a chill ran up my spine at that moment. All of my senses went on high alert and I dropped into a battle ready stance, my hand slipping down to my EMR.  
It had become the obvious choice for my fighting style early on, when I had shown an affinity for lightning. As I peered into the room, I spied a hulking shape in a corner, that was slowly getting bigger. My eyes narrowed and I snapped my EMR out into it's full length.

And then there were eyes staring back at me.  
Four of them.  
They were glowing red, but only one was actually fixated on me. The other three were writhing about, as if unattached to anything at all. A low, undulating growl rumbled from amid the eyes, and the thing poked it's head out into the corridor.

"What in the hell was Hojo _DOING_? This thing is UGLY!"

I realized belated that talking aloud was probably a bad thing.  
The creature turned in my direction and suddenly, it was right in front of me.

"Shit!" I yelled, as I jumped backward. The beast spun, and I glimpsed a mass of tentacles swinging at me before I managed to block. Unfortunately, that just sent me flying into a signpost. That was going to hurt in the morning. And why do these creatures always have tentacles?  
I blew a piece of hair out of my face and leaped for the monster. I managed to scramble around to what I guessed was the back of it, and tried to take note of the weak spots.

Ok. So the four eyes were attached by...stems I guess. If I could take those out, I might be able to disable this thing enough to kill it. I darted around another group of tentacles, and finally spied an eye meandering about, in jumping distance. I lunged at the base of it, and switched my EMR on full blast.

"Take that!" I crowed in delight, before a tentacle slipped around my ankle and brought me down. It then dutifully threw me into a wall (At least it wasn't another signpost), then sent me flying across the corridor into the other wall. I felt something give at the impact, and gritted my teeth. I stood a bit shakily, almost falling over as I did so.  
Damnit, twisted ankle. Focus, and deal with it later. Huh, there's an idea.  
I closed my eyes, and proceeded to really focus.

"_THUNDAGA_!"

Lightning crackled eerily, and powerfully, as my fully mastered materia ripped into the beast with a scary amount of force. I actually had to juice it twice, however, before it gave up the ghost. It flopped and twitched a bit before turning one eye to me and remaining still. I collapsed against the wall, my ankle not really able to support me much longer, and took out my phone again. I was feeling a bit weak as well, and was glad we had a Hi-Potion in the car. I snapped another picture and texted it again to my boss.

**'I sure hope this is the right one this time.'**  
**'Yes. Good job. The cleanup team will be there in a half hour.'** was the only reply.  
I groaned and began to make my way slowly towards the car.

Shit. Damnit. _DAMNIT_. This hurt. But I was getting close to the entrance, and would be damned if I actually looked weak in front of the kid. I put on my best grin and managed to walk without limping to the car. My partner was leaning on the drivers side door, and raised his eyebrow at me. I frowned. I must look like a train wreck. I said nothing until we got in the car.

"Ok, off to 7th Heaven then! Hey, Aibou, where'd you put that potion that was in here a while ago?" I said off-handedly, ripping through the glovebox in my fruitless search.  
"Here." He said simply, handing me the potion I had been looking for. I grimaced as I took a swig. I could feel myself start to perk up though, and took one more tiny sip just in case, before corking the bottle and stuffing it into the ashtray.

"Find anything?" He asked casually. I gave him a carefully calculated look.  
"Nothing too important." I said with a sloppy smile as he started up the car.

It was a quiet ride back. I didn't talk too much, due to my twisted ankle and possibly broken ribs. My partner kept sending me worried glances, but I shook him off. All it took was a nod toward Marlene in the backseat. I knew he would have questions for me later, but for the moment, all I wanted to do was rest. And thankfully, Marlene didn't ask any questions. I slumped over against the window and just relaxed.

"Hey, Aibou."  
My partner spoke up as we turned onto a bumpy road. Full of potholes. This, however, made me unconciously hiss in pain from the jostling. Damn ribs. Damn Hojo. Damn Monsters.  
"Yesss?" I responded testily.  
"We're here." He said, an eyebrow crawling up his forehead to perch just above his sunglasses. I knew he knew I was hurting, but I could deal with that later.  
My partner reached out for my shoulder, but I shoved his hand away and got out of the car before he could hold me back like I knew he wanted to. I had to lean on the car door for a moment, cradling my ribs, however. As he sidled around me with Marlene, he glared at me, and I caught myself glad that he had shades on. You wouldn't know it, but he has one helluva glare. It's on the level of a death ray, almost. Of course, I just shrugged it off as if it was nothing.

"So, Marlene. What's your dad's name? What's he look like?" I asked amicably.  
"Oh, his name is Barret. And he um..he has a metal arm!" she said cutely.

I grimaced. Metal arm? So that means he's a cyborg. I would hate to be any of this little girl's future suitors. Her dad doesn't need a shotgun.

My partner chuckled at the expression I was making.  
"Oh shut it." I growled at him, before looking over to the little girl. "Hey, Marlene. I'm going to go in there and get your dad out for you, alright? Just wait right here." I said as I marched into the bar.

My eyes didn't take long to adjust, and I stepped into the middle of the room.  
"Is there a guy named Barret here?" I said loudly.  
All the other patrons grew silent as the grave, and pointed to a large black man with a metal _gun_arm.  
_Wonderful_. Marlene left that little part out. Oh well. What has to be done must be done.  
I walked up to him and socked him in the face.

"_That_! is for not picking up your daughter after school and leaving her to wander the 7th sector slums by _herself_. Do you know that she almost got _killed_ by a monster? _NO!_ Of _COURSE_ you don't, because Y_OU_ dropped the ball!" I yelled at him. He had an amazing impression of a deer in the headlights of a truck.

"Ah, Wuh..." He said intelligently.

I leaned over and grabbed him by the collar, looking directly at him with a glare worse than my partners.  
"Now you come outside and apologize to her for leaving her by herself." I hissed, dropping his collar and marching outside.

"Aibou. Car. Now." I ground out, and stormed past them to get in the car.  
My partner shrugged and gave Marlene a little push to the door as her dad came out of the bar. We drove off as they hugged in the doorway.

If I never have to come to this part of town again, I'll be happy.


	2. Identity

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, settings, games/movies or plots of either of these stories. I just jammed them together. So don't sue me.

* * *

Brrring. Brrring. Brrrring. Brrring. Brrring. Brrr... *click*

"Hello?"  
I sighed as my boss picked up the phone. I had hoped that today would be a little slower than usual, but no dream can last forever.  
I tuned him out, idly hoping that if I didn't hear him he wouldn't exist. I was lazing around on the company couch, counting the ceiling spots. With so little going on here today, I should have just stayed home.

I nearly squawked as my partner suddenly materialized behind the sofa. I managed to remain calm, though my heart was nearly hammering out of my chest.  
"Hey Aibou." I said mildly, swinging my legs off the couch so he could sit down (and to calm my beating heart).  
"Morning." He responded, sitting down. It was then I noticed he had two cups of coffee. He offered me one with a small grin. "Coffee?"  
I nodded gratefully, becoming slightly more vertical, and sipped on the hot beverage.

Interesting. He had opted for his black leather jacket today. So we did have a job, but not in an official capacity. Fun way to start the day. I took another sip of my coffee.

"How are the ribs?"  
"Fine. A little bruised still, but I'll heal up in no time."  
He grunted in satisfaction with that, and settled back into the couch. I leaned against the armrest, sending little glances over the back of the couch at my boss.

Wutaian in descent, he had long hair and a lean, yet muscular physique. I grinned as he made a slightly annoyed face at me and waved me away with his hand.  
I sank back into the couch, and let my mind wander.

"So you're the one going to be my partner?" I said flatly, looking over the imposing man.  
Solidly built, and obviously a hand-to-hand fighter. At least I would have my work cut out for me in training.

My boss had called me to inform me that I was being assigned a partner, and to meet him at the airport. We had been given a mission to asses our compatibility and work behavior. If all went well, the arrangement would be permanent.

The man nodded. I smirked. "Well, we better get to know each other then. There's this great burger joint down the road." I said amicably. He relaxed, and responded to the passphrase appropriately.  
"No thanks, I had a good lunch."  
I grinned as we stowed his bags in the car, then drove off. He quickly got down to buisness.

"So, what do we know on these guys?" He asked, motioning to the file about 5 inches thick lying in between the two seats. I motioned for him to pick it up.  
"On the outside, It looks like they are trying to research new energy types. They're also backed by several large corporations." I paused, and frowned. "However, two weeks ago, there were strange power outages and electrical fluctuations in the surrounding areas, as well as an unusual amount of trucks coming and going from the facility. We need to find out what they're doing." I said seriously.  
"It sounds like it could be a lot of different things." He commented, flipping through the files.  
"Unfortunately, yes. We need to find out what they're up to, gather the evidence and stop them in their tracks."

The rest of the ride was pretty quiet, as I could come up with nothing to say and he didn't seem like much of a talker anyway.  
We reached the motel we were staying at and checked in, though the clerk at the desk gave us a strange look as he gave us our key.  
I flopped down on one of the beds, letting my bags fall where they would. My new partner sat down on the other bed and removed his sunglasses, massaging his temples.

Huh. So that's why he wore them. Very expressive features. The sunglasses would make it easier for him to mask that. He glanced over at me, then concentrated on the file.

"I called ahead for take-out. Don't know about you, but I'm starved." I said nonchalantly, pulling out my own copy of the mission file and going through it.  
"Sounds fine to me. I have a question though." He said carefully.  
I blinked. He sounded hesitant about this, which mean I should treat it seriously. "Shoot."

"Doesn't this strike you as strange?" He asked, suddenly. I sat up and held his gaze.

The whole thing did strike me as strange, and had ever since my briefing. Usually I was given solo missions, but they had given me a partner and sent us out with minimal information and a few pieces of information. The higher ups had seemed very tense as well. The whole thing was off just a little.

I held his gaze a moment more, then averted my eyes.  
"Yea..it does." I said quietly.

I picked up a picture of the research facility as I lay back down on the bed.  
Something just seemed so strange about the building, but I couldn't for the life of me place what it was.

I was broken from my musings by a knock on the door, and I scrambled to hide the papers while my partner solved the problem easily.  
He simply opened the door.

"Take out for room 319?"  
"That's us, thanks. How much do I owe you?"  
"$12.95."  
"Here's a 20. Keep the change."  
"Thanks! Have a good night!"

I ceased scrambling as my partner handled the delivery boy with ease, his large frame blocking further view into the room.  
I relaxed as he shut the door, and was surprisingly, grinning.  
"Let's eat, huh?"

I snapped out of my memories at the sound of my boss's voice.

"We have a mission." He said calmly.  
Well, no shit. What else were you talking on the phone for so long for, huh?  
I kept my mouth shut, however, and chose to watch him moved across the room with a lithe grace that only he possessed. I came close, but was nowhere near as quiet as he.

My partner and I glanced at each other for a second, then gave him our full attention.  
"We have been asked to investigate the Nibelheim reactor. It would appear that there is a leak somewhere there, and that the Mako pollution is causing extreme side effects in the local flora and animal life."

Mako pollution? That shit was dangerous, with a capital D. Why are we the ones getting sent out on this? We're pretty damn susceptible to it ourselves.

"We need to find the leak, and try to get rid of the more problematic creatures. Someone else will clean it up. We leave in two days." He said clearly and quickly.  
I leaned forward in my seat.  
"Want me to tell blondie?" I asked. My boss shook his head.  
"I'll handle that, don't worry." He said.  
I shrugged. I had tried, and it was my duty as second-in-command to anyway.

I pushed myself up off the couch.  
"Well, if that's the case, then I'm going out for a bit. Could use some fresh air." I said easily.

I yawned as I moved through the busy streets, not really paying attention to where I was going. The mission was most likely going to be boring as hell, despite the whole 'you might go fucking batshit insane' part. Might as well do something fun before we left.

I was about to head to a nearby bar when I realized someone was tailing me. I dodged into a sidestreet with a lot of space. I had a feeling this was going to get ugly.  
"If you're going to tail me, might as well meet me." I called out easily.

A footstep behind me alerted me to the person standing there. I turned slowly, coming face to face with a thug I had been dealing with for weeks.  
"Today for sure, you're coming with us." He snarled.  
I rolled my eyes.  
"Don't you have anything better to do with your time? Like actually getting good at fighting?" I asked wearily. I was starting to get tired of dealing with these goons.  
"'Our boss wants to see you, so he'll see you!"

How intelligent. This idiot and some of his buddies had been ganging up on me all week in a laughable attempt to make me go see their boss. It was getting both irritating and pitiful.

"If he wants to see me, then he can come see me himself. Doesn't he know it's dangerous to play with fire?" I said curtly. I was done playing with these idiots.  
"Fuck you! You ain't that tough!" He yelled as he leaped at me.

I sidestepped his badly aimed punch, countering with an uppercut of my own that stopped him cold. I grabbed his arm, using the upward momentum to throw him over my head and behind me into three of his friends, who fell to the ground in a heap. One of his buds ran at me from the side, which is never a good idea. I roundhouse kicked him in the face, and he was down with a broken nose. By this time, the group behind me had become untangled, and charged. The poor idiots wouldn't know what hit them. My EMR was out and I was rounding on them quicker than their eyes could follow. As I was dealing with the four in front of me, one snuck up behind me, only to be kicked backward into a wall where he slid down and stayed down.

From that point on it was a battle royale, only difference being that they weren't that hard to beat.

I leaned over and picked up their ringleader by the collar. I was mad and it showed. My eyes were glowing green and I'm pretty sure my expression could have melted Shiva.  
"If you EVER come near this part of town again, I will kill every last one of you. Understand?" I growled out.

"Ooo..angry lady! So scary!" came a mocking voice from behind me. I didn't even look behind me as I threw the leader of the thugs toward the source of the voice. I smiled as I heard it connect with it's target, then turned around.

Woah.  
He could be me.  
Only male.

He had long red hair, green eyes, and was dressed in a sloppy suit. He also had an EMR in one hand, and goggles on his head. And he was currently shoving the unconscious thug off of himself.  
I crossed my arms over my chest and waited. He gave me a once over glance, then got up off the ground.

"You got good aim." He said with a cheeky grin. I cocked an eyebrow.  
"As gratifying as that is, who the hell are you?"  
That grin again, this time with an accompanying tap of his EMR against his shoulder.  
"Reno of the Turks. You?"  
"Crimson Viper."


End file.
